In my first career building an investment banking firm, I stumbled upon a hiring secret: recruiting former competitive athletes. I found them to have several attributes that were important to my business, and over time those attributes became a kind of pattern I could reliably bet on.

The Hiring Secret I Learned in Investment Banking

First, they were hard workers. As competitive athletes, they were surrounded by driven individuals, and they learned early that the only way to win was to work hard on their skills every day, rain or shine. At MB Partners, we had to work hard and leave no stone unturned to find willing buyers and negotiate deals that our clients would accept. There were no free donuts.

Second, they were resilient. Competitive sport is never smooth sailing. Even if you are part of a dominant team, you frequently face setbacks, injuries, and defeat. In individual sports, it takes five to seven consecutive victories to win a tournament, so even the best often lose. Only the resilient stay in the game for any length of time, and MB Partners needed team members who were not crushed by failures—of which we had many. Often a deal would fall through after 12–18 months of persistent effort due to a recession or an owner dropping the ball.

Third, they were coachable. All competitive athletes have coaches, and coaches don’t tolerate athletes who can’t take and use constructive—and often painful—feedback. I needed team members who could improve their skills rapidly and become productive, profitable contributors fast. The un-coachable ones never panned out.

On my team, we had several athletes, including successful fencers, water polo players, and bodybuilders. I often hired someone with a lesser academic record when they had a strong athletic background, because those traits mattered more than a transcript in the real world.

Why Veterans Often Have the Same Strengths—And More

When moving to the United States, I found that military training provided many of the same attributes. I have worked with several CEOs, COOs, business owners, and Guides who have served our country in uniform and have found them to exhibit the same qualities: hard work, resilience, and coachability.

In many cases, I’ve found veterans to be even superior to competitive athletes. Most have strong personal presence, organizational discipline, and solid management skills. Many of them speak well and inspire people too. Actually, the best veterans are often those who also played competitive sports in the Navy, Army, Air Force, or Marines—because you get the compounding effect of both worlds.

A Veterans Day Gift From Our Summit OS Guide Community

In honor of Veterans Day each year, our Summit OS Guide™ community likes to express our gratitude for the service of veteran business leaders by donating three 45-Day Execution Momentum™ programs. This program helps you and your team implement all the basic business management practices in just 45 days—a process that takes 9–12 months with most popular business operating systems.

If you are interested, sign up for the waiting list for 2026, by filling out our contact form and mentioning “Free 45-Day Execution Momentum for Veterans” in the comments.

If you qualify, one of our Guides will help you:

• Articulate and gain buy-in to your unique Core Values
• Map your Vision and basic Strategy
• Empower Mini-CEOs™ to run your business
• Build a realistic and inspiring Strategic Plan for 2026
• Supercharge your communication with powerful Meeting Frameworks™
• “Execute like hell” — completing Rocks, hitting KPIs, and progressing on your Q1 Napkin Plan™
• Accelerate your Decision-Action Velocity™
• Elevate your team’s energy, optimism, and belief in your leadership

We do this by working with you and your team in-person and via Zoom, giving you intuitive software and coaching sessions. If you have the desire to succeed, we will make sure you will.

Learn More

To learn more about the Summit OS® program, visit our website.

If you are a veteran yourself, we thank you for your service — and let’s put your business on the path to dominance, just what you’ve been used to in our country’s uniform.